A photo posted by badgalriri (@badgalriri) on Oct 3, 2016 at 11:56am PDT

As Refinery29 notes, the caption is presumably referencing Bob Marley's song of the same name about the Civil War soldiers, which includes the lyrics, "To me, it makes a lot of sense / How the dreadlock Rasta was the Buffalo Soldier / And he was taken from Africa, brought to America / Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival."

Rihanna's decision to get dreads also comes shortly after Marc Jacobs came under fire for sending mostly white models down his spring/summer 2017 runway in faux dreads during New York Fashion Week. The American designer was accused of cultural appropriation, but defended himself on Instagram, writing he doesn't "see colour or race," but rather, sees "people." He also said, "Funny how you don't criticize women of colour for straightening their hair."

Talk about a powerful beauty statement ... but really, we'd expect nothing less from RiRi.